Smart cards are very well known in the art of electronics. A smart card is defined as a pocket-sized credit card used for identification or financial transactions having an embedded integrated circuit and a memory used to provide security services, such as confidentiality of information in the memory.
A smart card is defined by a form factor that is similar to the form factor of a credit card. Smart cards known in the art are typically designed in a standard ID-1 format, for example with dimensions of 85.6 mm by 54 mm and thickness of 0.76 mm, as specified in the ISO 7810 standard. As an example, smart cards are commonly used for payment and ticketing applications (e.g. ATM cards, credit cards, debit cards, etc.), for enhancing security (e.g. electronic passports), etc.
Furthermore, the use of smart cards is becoming increasingly popular within mobile phones. Since modern mobile phones need to embed components that have the functionality of smart cards, it thus became necessary to define a smaller format in addition to the ID-1 format in order to address the needs of small terminal devices.
The ID-000 format, bearing the descriptive name ‘plug-in’, is defined for the purpose of designing a smart card, with typical dimensions of 25 mm×15 mm, to be plugged-in small terminal devices, such as mobile phones. The ID-000 format is presently used with GSM mobile telephones, which have very little room for a card and do not require the card to be frequently extracted. The ID-000 card used in GSM mobile phones is a special type of card defined as a SIM (Subscriber Identify Module) card or a USIM (UMTS SIM) card.
However, existing smart cards in the ID-000 format appear to be too small in dimensions to be conveniently handled and stored.
As such, it is required by mobile network operators that an ID-000 format smart card will be initially delivered to the user in ID-1 format. The user himself/herself can later extract the small-format ID-000 smart card from the larger format ID-1 card and use it within the mobile phone.
In modern ID-000 format cards, such as SIM products, where the card contains more electronics than a standard ID-1 format smart card and the net height of the electronic assembly is large and approaches the thickness of the standard ID-1 format smart card, the ID-000 card is manufactured as a separate unit from the ID-1 card. Because of various manufacturing engineering considerations, the manufacturing process of the ID-000 format card is different than the manufacturing process of a standard ID-1 format.
As such, the production process of providing an ID-000 format smart card that is packaged and delivered to the user in the ID-1 format includes a phase of assembly in which the pre-fabricated ID-000 format smart card is inserted into the pre-fabricated ID-1 format by an automated assembly machine.
Existing techniques of packaging ID-000 format smart card within an ID-1 format include inserting the ID-000 format smart card within a recess (that is configured within the ID-1 format card) and then fixing the ID-000 format smart card to this dent by means of glue, adhesive tape, or mechanical pressure. In other words, prior art secure cards include an ID-000 payload that is inserted within a dent that is configured within an ID-1 carrier, such that the dent of the carrier mechanically supports the payload from two or more directions (right, left, front, rear, top or bottom).
Referring to FIG. 1A, there is shown a schematic diagram of the way in which an ID-000 format smartcard 10 embedded with a microprocessor 12 is packaged within an ID-1 format card 14, according to a prior art packaging method.
ID-1 format card 14 is configured with a dent (not shown), forming a depression within the surface of the ID-1 format card 14, to admit ID-000 format smartcard 10. The area created by the dent to admit ID-000 format smartcard 10 is delimited with non-continuous breakable extensions 16 separated by non-continuous slits 18.
When a user wants to extract ID-000 format smartcard 10 from ID-1 format card 14 (for example, in order to plug ID-000 format smartcard 10 into a mobile phone), he/she can break the breakable extensions 16 and remove ID-000 format smartcard 10 from its positioning within the dent in ID-1 format card 14.
Referring to FIG. 1B, there is shown a cross sectional schematic diagram, along a cross section A-A of FIG. 1A. The areas of ID-1 format card 14 are separated by two non-continuous slits 18. As shown herein, the dent configured within the ID-1 format card 14 to admit ID-000 format smartcard 10 is represented by the middle area of the ID-1 format card 14.
Referring to FIG. 1C, there is shown a cross sectional schematic diagram, along a cross section B-B of FIG. 1A. The areas of ID-1 format card 14 are separated by two non-continuous slits 18. As shown herein, the dent configured within the ID-1 format card 14 to admit ID-000 format smartcard 10 is represented by the middle area of the ID-1 format card 14 including the area of the ID-000 format smartcard 10.
However, as the net height of the electronic assembly of a typical ID-000 format smart card manufactured today is large and approaches the thickness of the standard ID-1 format card, inserting the ID-000 format smart card within a dent in the ID-1 format card causes the ID-000 format card to protrude, within the ID-1 format card, from the original dimensions of a standard credit card. This leads to much inconveniency in the manufacturing and packaging processes required for distributing smart cards in this format.